In a small business you wear lots of hats and if
you're like me when you started your business you try to do everything
yourself.
One day
you wake up frazzled and poor and wonder what exactly are you doing? It's
called overloaditis. OK I just made that up, but we don't want to spend more
money than we need to, right? And it's just not sensible spending money on
getting someone else to do something we're no good at and that takes us 4 times
as long, right?
As the
Americans would say - let's do the Maths! You're doing your own bookkeeping,
you hate numbers so you procrastinate for an hour (or two) before you sit down
and do it. If you're hourly rate is £50 an hour that's already cost
you £50 and you haven't done
anything yet!! Then multiply that rate by 4 when you do something as it takes
you much longer. So what are we up to for that month? Well let's be generous
and say it takes you 6 hours, that's £300 plus £50. How much would it cost for a bookkeeper? Even if they
charge the same hourly rate as you it would cost you £75.
You've
also lost opportunities - how much could you have sold in that time? Or what
else could only you do for your business that would reap
rewards?
And don't
even get me started on if you answer your own phone. Instead of being
interrupted midway through something and answering with a snarl. You could get
someone really pleasant to answer and take a message. Freeing you up to do what
you're great at.
Don't get
sucked into false economies! Do yourself a favour and only do what only you can
do....